Title:
The effect of climate and aerosol on crop production: a case study of central Asia

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dc.contributor.advisor Sokolik, Irina N.
dc.contributor.author Ozdes, Mehmet
dc.contributor.committeeMember Curry, Judith A.
dc.contributor.committeeMember Webster, J. Peter
dc.contributor.department Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
dc.date.accessioned 2013-09-19T13:03:33Z
dc.date.available 2013-09-19T13:03:33Z
dc.date.issued 2012-07-10
dc.description.abstract The effect of recent climate change in Central Asia poses a significant and potentially serious challenge to the region’s agricultural sector. An investigation of the aerosol-climate- crop yield correlation in this region is essential for a better understanding of the effect of aerosols and climate on Central Asian agriculture. Our goal is to investigate the linkages between aerosol, climate and major crop production (cotton, maize, wheat, and rice) in specified agricultural regions in the five Central Asian countries. Our approach is to perform the Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient analysis in order to observe the statistical correlation between crop yield, temperature, precipitation, and aerosol optical depth (AOD), for each indicated agricultural region in the selected countries. Besides, using NASA GIOVANNI website tools, we retrieve distribution maps and time series of temperature, precipitation and AOD to facilitate the analyses. The research shows that in some aspects, the relation between AOD, climate, and crop yield is different in Central Asia than in previous global or large scale research hypotheses. The statistical correlations vary not only across countries but also across agricultural regions. For example, in Kazakhstan, opposite correlations exist between precipitation and AOD in two different agricultural regions even though both regions are rain-fed. In the more arid countries (with lower rain rates) such as Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, no correlation exists between crop production and temperature, precipitation, and AOD, while the less arid (with higher rain rate) countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan) indicate a positive correlation.
dc.description.degree M.S.
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/48997
dc.language.iso en_US
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology
dc.subject Aerosol
dc.subject Central Asia
dc.subject Effect of aerosols
dc.subject Crop production
dc.subject Climate effect
dc.subject Climate change
dc.subject Asia
dc.subject.lcsh Crops and climate
dc.subject.lcsh Agricultural ecology
dc.subject.lcsh Atmospheric aerosols
dc.subject.lcsh Climatic changes
dc.title The effect of climate and aerosol on crop production: a case study of central Asia
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Thesis
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.advisor Sokolik, Irina N.
local.contributor.corporatename School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
local.contributor.corporatename College of Sciences
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relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 85042be6-2d68-4e07-b384-e1f908fae48a
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